Merriam-Webster (you know, that dictionary company) announced its word of the year is "w00t." And that sound you now hear is millions of English teachers screaming out in terror. The leading US dictionary stated that the word is like saying "yay" and was selected after Merriam-Webster website users were invited to vote on 20 words frequently looked-up or submitted by readers. The runner-up word was "facebook" as a verb, which means to add or search for a person on a social networking site.

The etymology of "w00t" is still a little messy. Some say it's a combination of wow and loot, others say it comes from hoot, but the zero replacing the letter o definitely comes from l33t speak. English sticklers can rest easy for now, but the day will come when companies pwn each other in the Wall Street Journal and someone makes a newb of themselves on the front page of the New York Times. w00t!

Japanese gamers can learn English with their DS. There's even a Japanese-English dictionary for the system. Now it's time for us poor monoglot anglophones to expand our linguistic horizons. A coder known as Zoelen has just released an early version of Project JDS. The app teaches you to recognize and write both hiragana and katakana characters, even listen to their pronunciation. And if you're really nice, you can use the touch screen to draw characters and get berated for using the wrong stroke order!

It isn't much to look at, but it gets the job done and is surprisingly feature-rich for a homemade app. Now if only it had a catchy name. Something like ... Touch Dic.

[Via DrunkenCoders]

Kanji Sonomama Rakubiki Jiten was released for the DS in Japan today, bringing an affordable electronic Japanese-English dictionary to the masses. KSRJ's major selling point is its stylus functionality, allowing users to input kanji (stroke-sensitive) and kana onto the touch screen. Japan Chronicles compared Nintendo's new toy tool to Canon's pricey ($299–$470) Wordtank V80 Chinese-Japanese-English dictionary, which also allows kanji inputs via a stylus. Here's what the site liked about KSRJ:

• Price*
• Same J-to-E and E-to-J dictionaries
• Word search by kanji
• English pronunciation
• Very readable, especially on a DS Lite
• Easy-to-use search history
• Useful quiz modes
• World clock
• Calendar

Here's what Wordtank V80 does better:

• Vastly superior navigation
• Superior Japanese dictionary (Super Daijirin vs. Meiky%u014D)
• Includes Chinese dictionary, as well as dedicated English and Kanji dictionaries
• Stylus-controlled navigation
• Includes real (not virtual) keyboard

*We're not sure what the official retail price for the dictionary software is, but we found KSRJ for as low as $48 at goldenshop.com.hk.